The What, Where, Why and How of Media Monitoring in the PR Industry
Media Monitoring in the Public Relations industry has never been so important, whether you’re experienced or a total beginner to media monitoring, read on to find out the immense value that media monitoring brings to your campaigns.
WHAT?
Monitoring your brand mentions is important in making decisions based on stakeholders, advertising, marketing, and crisis communication. Don’t miss out on an opportunity! Not only should you monitor your brand’s mentions, but monitor your competition. You’ll gain a sense of what works for them and modify your marketing strategies in response.
WHERE?
No need to monitor all channels, instead focus on the ones that matter for your target audience.
– Twitter is the ultimate social media channel to monitor. With live streaming and constant updates, Twitter has become journalist’s favorite tool for reaching out directly to their audience. Monitoring hashtags and conversations will give you awareness of opinions and trends.
PR Professionals monitor:
91% online, 79% in print, 66% social media, 59% broadcast
61% Twitter, 53% Facebook, 35% Instagram, 26% YouTube
WHY?
No matter your business, media monitoring grants you privileged insight into your target audience’s views on your brand and competitors. Use media monitoring to gain insight into their opinions on your brand and competition. This will help you make better campaigns and business decisions, such as how and where you spend your time and materials. 95% of PR companies engage in daily media monitoring. So, don’t get left behind!
Even the most basic media monitoring software can gather information on your audience’s opinion. Therefore, discovering what your audience thinks and feels about your brand allows you to plan solutions for future issues before them blowing up.
HOW?
Here are some tips to ensure you never miss out on your brand’s mentions.
Work with a media monitoring provider to ensure you utilize air-tight search terms. Not using appropriate search terms means you will miss out on parts of your brand’s coverage, or gather information on irrelevant mentions. These search terms can be challenging to craft, so make sure to ask your provider to carve out your search terminology.
Even skilfully crafted search terms will not guarantee a 100% success rate, so if you have the budget, use a full-service media monitoring agency. These agencies will eliminate duplicates and collect quality media monitoring.
Monitor daily! Even though it may seem excessive, monitoring your media mentions daily will keep you updated on breaking news and future issues. 91% of users of monitoring tools receive daily updates on coverage. You can never be too informed.
Utilizing media monitoring tools will greatly help to gauge a rich understanding of your audience’s feelings towards your brand. Once you have done this, you can become a part of the narrative and take control. Modify corporate messaging and campaigns to be directly responsive to your audience’s dialogue. Reach out to relevant social media influencers to continue to create and spread your message.
No matter the circumstances – foreseeable or crisis-prone, your audience’s opinion can change unexpectedly. So, whether you are getting ahead of a potential crisis or influencing your brand’s narrative, media monitoring will always be beneficial.